More RDU travelers take the TSA Pre-Check fast lane

The Transportation Security Administration has opened an office in North Raleigh to take applications for the TSA Pre-Check expedited screening program.

Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officer Patti Melchione motions a man through the metal detector in the TSA Pre-Check lane at Raleigh-Durham International Airport Tuesday, July 29, 2014. The TSA has opened an application center in Raleigh for its TSA Pre-Check program. TSA is a program that allows low-risk travelers to experience expedited security screening at participating U.S. airports including RDU. TSA Pre-Check is a component of TSA’s intelligence-driven, risk-based security approach used to provide the most effective security in the most efficient manner.
cliddy@newsobserver.com

Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officer John Pippy motions customers to the TSA Pre-Check lane at Raleigh-Durham International Airport Tuesday, July 29, 2014. The TSA has opened an application center in Raleigh for its TSA Pre-Check program. TSA Pre-Check is a program that allows low-risk travelers to experience expedited security screening at participating U.S. airports including RDU. TSA Pre-Check is a component of TSA’s intelligence-driven, risk-based security approach used to provide the most effective security in the most efficient manner.
cliddy@newsobserver.com

If the airport security checkpoint agent sends you through the TSA Pre-Check lane, that means you get to leave your shoes on.

And your jacket and belt. You’ll forgo the full-body scan, too.

You’ll be told also that you may leave your laptop in your backpack – along with that quart-sized zipper bag that holds your regulation 3-ounce bottles of gels and liquids.

These small favors are accorded to 5,600 North Carolinians who have paid $85 to enroll in the Transportation Security Administration’s Pre-Check expedited screening program. They also go to untold numbers of additional travelers who are sometimes surprised – and sometimes not surprised – to discover that their boarding passes also have been stamped with the TSA Pre-Check logo.

Candice Scheuer and her husband have enjoyed free samples of the Pre-Check treatment on a few of their recent flights. She doesn’t know why it works out this way for some trips, but not others. Now they’re ready to pay the $85 to become full-time TSA Pre-Check travelers.

They took their passports Tuesday to a North Raleigh office where a TSA contractor asked a few questions – ever been convicted of a crime? – and collected their fingerprints and application fees.

“We want to sign up to expedite the process of going through security,” said Scheuer, 66, of Raleigh. “We travel quite a bit. It will help. You don’t have to remove your shoes. It’s not as long a line. It’s a lot faster.”

About 25 percent of RDU travelers are routed through the Pre-Check lane, TSA spokeswoman Sari Koshetz told reporters at RDU Tuesday. Some have enrolled in the program, while others are identified in a secretive process called Secure Flight. All travelers are prescreened before the airlines issue their boarding passes, to identify some who won’t need the closest security at the airport.

“TSA has been moving away from a one-size-fits-all security protocol,” Koshetz said. “By placing more focus on your passengers before they get to the checkpoint, we are able to focus at the checkpoint on those we know less about. Everyone is screened and their luggage is screened, but ... we can have a more efficient process because we prescreen.”

Koshetz wouldn’t explain why travelers might get the quicker Pre-Check treatment for some trips but a more rigorous scrutiny on other trips. Powell said all travelers would appreciate the expedited screening.

“It’s a lot less hassle,” said Powell, 60. “I really think they should get rid of most of this stuff for everybody.”